Florida Panthers: Lines, Updates, Preview for Round 2, Game 1 vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
The Florida Panthers look to continue their playoff success on the road as they kick off their second-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Florida Panthers look to carry their success on the road from Round 1 into Round 2 as they open up their series against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night..
Florida won all three games it played in Tampa Bay — with star defenseman Aaron Ekblad serving a suspension in all three games — while outscoring the Lightning 14-5.
The Panthers will be without Ekblad again as he serves the final game of a two-game suspension to kick off the second round. But the Panthers have the blueprint of what they need to do to survive his absence.
“The style we play, it travels,” Seth Jones said. “It’s not just a home style of putting up big numbers and using the home crowd to our momentum. Obviously, that helps, but we play a very simple game. We are a very physical hockey team and we score a lot of our goals the gritty way, so we are going to continue doing that.”
While a lot of other teams have disparities between the style of play they get from their first line versus what they get out of their third and fourth line, Florida is different in that they get the same straight-line, physical style of hockey out of every line.
No matter which line is out there, they are heavy on the forecheck, they have at least one forward on that line that can hold his own defensively — two in most cases — and they will get bodies to the net and wear their opponents down.
It allows the Panthers to freely roll their lines out without worrying about the home team getting the match-up advantage when they get the final change.
That was where the Panthers found their success in Games 1 and 3 in Tampa, specifically, and it is an area they will look to continue to build success on when they take on the Maple Leafs in Round 2.
“We’ve never been a heavy match team,” coach Paul Maurice said. “I think you see that more with teams that have a defined checking line. There’s an advantage they have at home that they lose on the road, and it does change the way you run your bench, the roles. For us, what we do at home is pretty darn close to what we do on the road, so there’s not much change for us.”
The Panthers have gotten that part of their game down with experience. They were forced to when they entered the 2023 playoffs as the eighth seed and managed to will their way to the Stanley Cup Final after starting each series on the road.
It was something they became comfortable with, which was why home-ice advantage was not a concern after they took a tumble down the standings when they were nursing injuries towards the end of the regular season.
“We love starting on the road,” Gustav Forsling said. “It’s not that we wanted to, but we the fact that we’re doing it, I love it. I think we get the guys together on the road, we have a lot of fun off the ice, so it’s amazing.”
THE NEWS
Sergei Bobrovsky will start in net for the Panthers tonight.
Tonight’s game will start at 8:00 p.m. EST and will be broadcasted nationally on ESPN.
Catch the Florida Panthers pre-game show on Scripps Sports with Jessica Blaylock, Ed Jovanovski, Randy Moller and Katie Engleson 30 minutes before puck drop.
For more information on how to find Scripps Sports, visit nhl.com/panthers/info/how-to-watch.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Matt Licthenstadter will be recording subscriber-exclusive podcast episodes following the conclusion of each playoff game. For Colby’s postgame stories right after the buzzer, check out palmbeachpost.com/sports
FLORIDA PANTHERS PROJECTED LINEUP
Presented by William Raveis Real Estate
Carter Verhaeghe — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Brad Marchand
A.J. Greer — Nico Sturm — Jesper Boqvist
Gustav Forsling — Seth Jones
Niko Mikkola — Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt — Uvis Balinskis
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Jaycob Megna, Mackie Samoskevich, Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich
Suspended: Aaron Ekblad
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS PROJECTED LINEUP
Matthew Knies — Auston Matthews — Mitch Marner
Max Pacioretty — John Tavares — William Nylander
Bobby McMann — Pontus Holmberg — Max Domi
Steven Lorentz — Scott Laughton — Calle Jarnkrok
Jake McCabe — Chris Tanev
Morgan Reilly — Brandon Carlo
Simon Benoit — Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Anthony Stolarz
Joseph Woll
Injuries: Jani Hakanpaa (IR), David Kampf (DTD)
Maple Leafs Lines Courtesy of DailyFaceOff.com
*Opposing team lines subject to change.